The Clifton clarion., 1887-02-16
OFFICIAL COUNTY PAPER.
Papitt MashSf

paper industry. Who does not remember those projectiles of our school days which we called aspit balls" and which when thrown at wall or ceiling adhered thereto with great tenacity? What was most striking about these balls was their extraordinary hardness after they become dry, this being more marked in proportion as the chewing had been more perfect.
 It was observing such hardness that the idea occurred to some one to employ paper pulp in the manu- fracture of various objects. Yet the substance employed fh the in dustry is not a mashed" paper in the absolute sense of the word, but is a paper converted into a soft cardboard by mechanical pro- cesses.
 In the manufacture of papief mache, the raw material is blhish gray, unsized, strong, fine grained paper. The sheets may be com pared (whitenes which is of no ac- count, being excepted) to Annonay Photographic paper. Cotton forms the basis of it.
 These sheets are pasted together by means of layer of dexttine or starch, applied with a steel spa tula. When the thickness has been obtained, the mass is put into a hydraulic press that opetates in & highly heated drying room. Un- der the immense pressure of this apparatus there forms a solid block, which is as hard as boxwood or ebony, and which is perfectly plane or has the form of the mould in which the raw material, so duo tile when moist and so hard when dry, was compressed. It can be moulded into any shape whatever, that of table legs, char arms, rose work, mouldings, etc.
 This sort of wood, without pores; sap, fbers, and knots, is capable of being worked with the saw, the gouge, the rasp, and the lathe. It can be polished, if need be, al though this operation is reserved for tue thick black varn1sh that is applied to it in several coats with an intervening stay of night in a very hot, air heated drying room. When 1t comes from the latter the varnish is very hard, and is free from blisters and cracks. It is possible that many of the objects that are offered to us as being fin ished with Japan or Chinese lac quer are merely impregnated and covered with mixture if gum copal, bitumen, tar, resin, and other Hydrocarbons impregnated with lampblack and color in cer- tain proportions.
 The baking is the important point. When this operation has been too greatly prolonged, the varnish scales off and cracks; and when 1t has not been carried to a sufficient extent, the surface re- mains sticky. It is not necessary, then, to exceed a certain tempera- ture always higher than 100 de- grees.
 This moulded and pressed paper can be easily turned in the lathe, and made into light and inde- structible balls and beads, or fash toned into inkstands, easkets, and cylinders.
 It IS from this substance that are manufactured all those brace lets of large black beads studded with Scotch imitation diamonds, all those necklaces. pins, clasps; and trinkets of all sorts that are taken for pitch coal or some pre- cious wood. Again, those hand some bracelets composed of semi lucid and opaline globules that seem to have been cut out of stone formed of concentric layers; like certain precious stones, are merely of papier mache, cemented with white varnish and coated with the same. So, too, those beautiful na- creous, painted and gilded trays, round tables, and caskets that are known as Japanese work are mere ly papier mache. The Japanese know but one kind of gliding, while we have two-dead and bril- liant. We have likewise, a liquid nacre taken from the scales of the whitebait that we'll initiates the white currant and transparent ber- ries. The nacre is solidly inlaid by means of the hydraulic press, and finally the surface Is finished with pumice stone in order to make 1t perfectly even, and covered with